What if this year wasn’t about chasing more, but discovering what’s already enough?
In a world that constantly pushes us toward more, bigger, faster, this episode offers a radical reframe. The Year of Enough isn’t about settling or giving up on dreams. It’s about shifting where growth begins.
Through intimate stories and practical experiments, you’ll learn how to:
• Break free from the “I’ll be happy when…” trap that keeps joy always one milestone away
• Build simple daily practices that train your brain to notice what’s working
• Release the physical, mental, and emotional clutter that blocks genuine contentment
• Start your year from wholeness instead of lack
This conversation is for anyone tired of postponing their peace until some future achievement. Whether you’re wrestling with body image, career satisfaction, relationships, or creative expression, you’ll discover how to pursue growth without rejecting your present self.
Part three of our New Year series, this episode pairs perfectly with The Myth of the Clean Slate and The Unresolution to help you design lasting, meaningful change. Join us in exploring what becomes possible when you let yourself feel moments of enough, right now, even as you keep growing.
Your worth isn’t waiting at the finish line. Let’s talk about how to remember that, one breath at a time.
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Episode Transcript:
Jonathan Fields: [00:00:00] Okay, so here’s the scenario. You’re standing in your kitchen or your office, or you’re sitting in a car driveway and you’ve just done the thing. You landed the job you’ve been chasing for years. You hit the number in your bank account, or maybe on the scale. You sign the deal, publish the book, cross the finish line. Moved into the house for so long, this was the line in the sand when this happened. You think then I’ll finally exhale. Then I’ll feel proud. Then I’ll feel okay. And people around you are saying, you must be so happy. I mean, this is huge. This is what you’ve been working so hard for, for so long. And it finally happened. You made it happen. You smile and you nod and you say, yeah, it’s really amazing. And some part of you is happy. But if you’re really being honest, there’s also this quiet, unsettling question in the background. Why don’t I feel the way I thought I would? The highs fade faster than you expected. Your nervous system resets to the the same restless kind of low grade hum and almost without thinking. Your mind starts reaching for the the next milestone. Okay. I mean, this is great. You think to yourself, but if I can just get, like there somewhere out there, then I’ll really be good. And we do this with our bodies. We do it with money, with success, with relationships, with parenting, with creativity, with our professional lives.
Jonathan Fields: [00:01:41] Whole years of our lives, sometimes entire seasons are organized around that invisible promise. I’ll be happy when I’ll be satisfied. When I’ll be good when I’ll finally feel the way I want to feel when. But what happens when the quote. When keeps moving? What happens when enough always lives just one step beyond wherever you are? I mean, what if, while we’re sprinting after some future version of okay of Enoughness, we’re missing the part of life that is actually available right now? Today I want to explore a different way to shape a year, not a year of more or better or of faster. Not a year of fixing your way into worthiness. A year of enough. Not giving up on your dreams enough. Not shrink your life enough, but a radical, quietly rebellious kind of enough that says, you know what? Who I am and what I have in this moment is a valid starting point for a good life. Not a problem to be solved, not a thing to be fixed. So we’re going to look at the I’ll be happy when trap. What? Enough really matters. How to practice contentment without losing your fire and how to design this year so it feels full from the inside out, not just impressive from the outside in. So excited to share this episode with you! I’m Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project.. So welcome back.
Jonathan Fields: [00:03:36] Over the last couple of episodes, we’ve been walking through a kind of a New Year mini series, a bit of a counterintuitive, contrarian New Year mini series. Actually. In the first episode, we explored the myth of the clean slate this idea that you have to erase your past self in order to to start fresh. We talked about carrying your past forward as data and wisdom, not as baggage or indictment. And then in the second last week’s episode, we talked about this thing I called the UN resolution a different way to approach changes that that replaces rigid, brittle resolutions with something more human and humane directions, experiments and gentle check ins. Instead of all or nothing edicts. So we’ve looked at who you bring into the new Year your whole self, not some fantasy version. And also how you relate to change as a living experiment, not a a brutal pass fail test. And that kind of sets up today’s question, which is if that’s who I’m bringing and that’s how I’m walking, then what am I walking toward? What’s this year actually about. And in a culture that constantly tells us more is the answer. You know, more achievement, more stuff, more optimization. I want to offer something that might feel a little counterculture. Maybe. What if this year was about enough? Let’s start with something. I think that, um, you know, almost all of us know pretty well the quote I’ll be happy when.
Jonathan Fields: [00:05:21] Dot dot dot game. So if you’re up for it, you might even say this quietly to yourself. And by the way, just like the last two episodes, there will be a PDF one sheet accompanying this. So as I offer invitations and questions and prompts throughout this conversation, you’re welcome to hit pause to think about them in real time to create your notebook or take out your notes app and actually jot down some notes or if you prefer, just go ahead and listen to this whole thing straight through and then take a look. In the show notes. There’ll be a link to download the simple one page PDF totally free, and you can then go back to it and answer all these questions slowly in your own time. So I’m going to jump back in here. So if you’re up for it, as I mentioned, you might even say this quietly to yourself or jot it down on a note. I will be happy when and just notice what fills that blank. Just immediately before you even think about anything, notice what just reactively fills that blank. For some of us it’s, you know, I’ll I’ll be happy when I lose the weight when I get out of this job, when I hit this income, when I find my person, or when my relationship finally looks like X or Y or Z, or when I move when the kids are older, when I finally have time to do my thing.
Jonathan Fields: [00:06:51] It’s so baked into how we think, we barely notice it. On one level, it sounds reasonable, you know? I’m not saying I’ll never be happy. I’m just saying I’ll let myself feel okay when these specific things are in place. The challenge is, I mean, life keeps moving. Maybe you’ve had this experience. You set a goal, you work really hard, you sacrifice sleep and time and relationships, and you finally achieve it. And for a moment, maybe days, maybe hours. You feel that hit. There it is. I mean, this is it. You feel that amazingness of having checked the box sometimes a really big box. I have done this. I have been there and I probably will again. But then your brain adapts it. Actually, habituates is the technical term for it. The new normal sets in the goalpost, quietly slides a few steps further down the road. You know, now the story becomes, okay, well, this is great, but if I can just get there just a little bit further, then I’ll really be okay. Implying that you’re really not okay right now. In psychology, there’s language for some of this the hedonic treadmill, where we adapt quickly to improvements and and we end up back at a baseline. Right. We have so much more, but we don’t feel any different. Right. But you don’t need the science terms to know the feeling.
Jonathan Fields: [00:08:28] A kind of low level, persistent. Not there yet. The happiness delay is what I think of as that inner contract that says, I will postpone feeling truly at home in my life until some future condition is met. And just to be clear, I am not saying that external circumstances don’t matter. They absolutely do. Safety. Equity. Health opportunity. These are not mindset issues. But many of us often who already have a lot of what we once wanted, we find ourselves living in this quiet, chronic deferral. We don’t let ourselves fully savor what’s here because we’re so focused on what’s not. We skim past wins because we’re already on to the next checkpoint. We rarely feel like we’ve arrived anywhere because arrival is always somewhere else, and there is an emotional and psychological and physiological cost to that. When you’re living in a persistent not enough yet state, your nervous system rarely gets to land. There’s always something to chase, to fix, to optimize. You’re suddenly running a race against yourself. So if that’s in play for you, you’re not alone. That’s important to know. In fact, you are absolutely in the majority. It’s not a character flaw. It’s an operating system that many of us were handed. The question is, do you want to keep running it this year? And before we talk about what enough might look like, I want to address something that can come up almost immediately when we start using that word.
Jonathan Fields: [00:10:14] For a lot of us, enough sounds like give up or settle or stop dreaming, or make peace with less than you really want or would be okay with. So if you’ve been wired to value growth or contribution ambition, your body might even tense up a little around enough. Like, wait, you know, like, are you telling me to just go sit on a cushion and stop caring about all the things that I have been really driving my whole life around caring about. So let me say this as clearly as I can. Enough is not the enemy of growth. Again, enough is not the enemy of growth. Enough is about where you’re starting from, not whether you’re allowed to move. So let me offer a working definition for for our conversation. Enough is the internal sense that who I am and what I have in this moment is a worthy, valid starting point for my life. Not a mistake that needs to be fixed before I’m allowed to feel okay. Let me repeat that. Enough is the internal sense that who I am and what I have in this moment is a worthy, valid starting point for my life. Not a mistake that needs to be fixed before I’m allowed to feel okay. That’s what enough is in our definition. Here’s what it’s not. It’s not. I never want anything to change. It’s not. I’m fine with being harmed or stuck.
Jonathan Fields: [00:11:54] It’s not. I don’t need safety, justice or better conditions. It is my worth. Doesn’t appear only at the finish line. It is. I’m allowed to experience moments of joy, contentment and pride along the way. It is. I don’t have to hate or reject my current self in order to pursue a different next season or chapter. You can hold on to two truths at once. I have genuine longings and dreams that matter, and right now, in this breath, I’m allowed to feel some measure of volcanoes even before any of those come to fruition. I actually call this grateful. Yearning Enough isn’t about shrinking your life, it’s about changing the fuel. Instead of being driven by by panic. You know, if I don’t do this, I’ll never be enough. Your move by alignment. I’m already someone who matters from that place. What do I want to create or explore or change? So there’s another important distinction to tease out here. Contentment is not a personality. You either have or don’t. It is a practice. Some of us are wired more towards scanning for what’s wrong, what’s missing, what could go sideways. That’s often your brain trying to protect you. It’s not a flaw. It is a survival strategy. The good news is we can gently train our attention to also register what’s here, what’s working, what’s quietly okay, or even beautiful. I want to share a few simple practices that can help you build this enoughness muscle.
Jonathan Fields: [00:13:42] You do not need to take them all on, by the way. Even one can start to shift the tone of your days. So let’s start out with practice number one. The quote already list once a week, and again this will all be in that PDF one pager. You’ll find a link in the show notes, or you can just pause and take notes as you go and do this work as we’re going. Practice number one the already list. Once a week, maybe on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe Friday evening. Whatever feels right to you. Take just a few minutes and ask yourself what is already here in my life that I once really wanted again? What is already here in my life that I once really wanted? Now it might be big things a a relationship, a job or career path. You know, living in a certain place, finishing school, having a kid. Or it might be smaller, quieter things. They count too. You know, the friend that you can text when you’re struggling or having a moment. The fact that you can walk unassisted. Having a space that feels like your own, even if it’s literally the corner of a room. Being able to to read or to make music, or to listen to music or to cook your favorite meal. You know the question. It’s not meant to minimize what’s hard or missing. It’s meant to balance the ledger.
Jonathan Fields: [00:15:13] We are very good at listing what we don’t have yet. The already list is a gentle invitation to to notice what has come into your life and stayed, that your brain may have stopped counting. So if you try this for a few weeks, you may start to feel a small shift from nothing is ever enough toward oh, something’s actually arrived. Some things are here. Some part of the life I once imagined is actually already being lived. So that’s practice number one, the already list. And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Let’s talk about practice number two. One good moment a day. Gratitude lists can be powerful, but sometimes they get abstract. You know, I’m grateful for my health. I’m grateful for my home. And your brain doesn’t fully feel it when something is abstract like that, when it’s so kind of general and vague. So I find it really helpful to make it very specific and embodied. Once a day, ask something like, what was one concrete moment today where life felt even a tiny bit okay, maybe even good. I’ll repeat that. What was one concrete moment today where life felt even a tiny bit? Okay, maybe even good. Not a concept, but an actual moment that you can identify. You can see, feel, taste, smell, put yourself back in, you know, drinking your coffee in silence before the house woke up, or laughing with someone about something silly, even for like five seconds.
Jonathan Fields: [00:17:01] Feeling the warm water on your skin in the shower, watching your kid or your partner or your friend or your pet. Do something that made you soften or smile, or even giggle, or just feel like you are standing in the sun for five seconds between errands. These are just some really fun, simple examples. Then, just for ten or 20s, replay that moment in your mind literally like you can close your eyes and imagine your finger on the button of an old, you know, like Walkman or recording device or video camera or projector or VHS. I’m dating myself here. Just hit rewind. Hit replay on something and replay it with as many senses as you can in your mind. See what you saw. Hear what you heard. If you can feel again what your body felt. You’re not forcing anything. You’re just. You’re. You’re letting your nervous system imprint it right there. In that sliver of time, something was enough. But it found that over time, this practice, it really it helps you realize that even on difficult days, there are tiny pockets where enough kind of just peeks through. And those pockets, they really matter, right? So that is our second practice after the already list. That is the one good moment a day. Now practice number three the what’s not wrong check in. This one is incredibly simple. Once a day maybe you know when you’re feeling particularly spun up or frazzled or melting down a little bit.
Jonathan Fields: [00:18:52] Pause and ask right now, in this exact moment, what’s not wrong again, right now, in this exact moment? What’s not wrong? Maybe it’s something like I’m breathing without effort. Maybe it’s my body’s being held in this chair. Maybe it’s the room, it’s the safe temperature. Maybe it’s. My back’s actually not aching. Maybe it’s the person I’m talking to cares about me. Or maybe it’s. I can see or hear or feel. Maybe it’s. You know, I have enough battery on my phone to finish this call. Um, again, this is not a spiritual bypass. It doesn’t erase what is hard. It’s a way of letting your system register that alongside the struggle. There is usually some thread of basic okayness in the present moment that we discount or become unaware of. If it’s available to you right now, we can even do a ten second mini version together. Unless you’re driving or doing something that needs your full attention, you know, just pause for 10s might soften your gaze or gently close your eyes. Take one easy breath. Just ask quietly right now, what is one small thing that is not wrong? What is one small thing that is not wrong? Maybe it’s as simple as my body is breathing. Maybe it’s. I’m curious enough to be listening to this. Whatever comes, let yourself feel that for just one breath longer than you normally would.
Jonathan Fields: [00:20:36] Then you can crack open your eyes again. Or come back to the room. That’s a rep. Tiny but real. Now, those were three basic practices. Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about something a little more concrete. I call this the anxiety of acquisition. So most of us, in ways big and small, are living in an economy of more more stuff, more apps, more tools, more subscriptions, more opportunities, more experiences. The story is, if I get the quote right things, objects, skills, credentials, connections, then I’ll feel like enough. So we find ourselves in this loop. One I feel a sense of lack. Second step in the loop. Decide something out there will fix it. Third step is research compare. Shop for step is acquire this step. Get a brief hit of satisfaction. Six we adapted that and then seven we return to lack with a little more clutter. This isn’t just about physical objects by the way. It’s, you know, the new gadget that’s supposed to make you a better creator, or the extra program or course that sits half finished, or the just in case gear in your closet. And I am raising my hand here. I have a just in case gear closet. That is absolutely ridiculous and I feel like I actually I may need an intervention right now. It’s the endless upgrading of devices and wardrobes and spaces before you’ve even really used what you already have, and each more that you bring in it asks for something back.
Jonathan Fields: [00:22:26] That’s the thing that we often miss. Time to research it. Money to buy and maintain it, mental bandwidth to remember it exists. Emotional energy to feel guilty for not using it enough. Right? And years ago, I went through a season where I accumulated a lot of gears around podcasting. I’ve done this in other crafts also, and other pursuits. Um, on some level I told myself, if I just get this one more thing, the better tool, the more advanced version, then I’ll really step into this practice the way that I imagine. But, you know, if I’m honest, often the gear was not just about utility, it was about identity. If I own these tools and I’m the kind of person who does this at the level you’re like as a professional, you know, I told myself all these stories. And look, sometimes I was, I used them, they added real joy. Other times the pile just grew and my actual time spent in the craft or using the things that I bought didn’t change much at all. I had upgraded my environment, but not my engagement. And at some point I started asking a different question what if, instead of acquiring my way into feeling like enough, I experimented with just doing more with what I already have? That didn’t mean never buying anything new. It meant being more intentional, not letting more be the default solution to every sense of lack, paying attention to the anxiety that often came with each new acquisition because it was there just underneath the surface.
Jonathan Fields: [00:24:11] Because here’s the quiet truth. When we constantly look outside ourselves for the thing that will finally make us feel like enough. We reinforce the story that who we are and what we have right now is inherently inadequate. Let me repeat that. When we constantly look outside ourselves for the thing that will finally make us feel like enough, we reinforce the story that who we are and what we have right now is inherently inadequate. And that brings us to what I think of as a sort of a minimalism of the spirit. When we hear minimalism, a lot of us picture empty rooms, white walls, three shirts, and one perfectly curated mug. And I sometimes kind of fantasize about that life, to be honest. And that is one expression, sure, but I’m much more interested in minimalism as it applies to your inner and relational life. So let’s look at three layers where more can quietly erode your experience of enough things, commitments and stories. And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors. We’ve already touched on things. Maybe. So let’s move down a level to commitments. Commitments are the recurring obligations that you have taken on the the weekly meetings, the volunteer roles, the group chats, the the favors you said yes to once and never stop doing the the just hop on a quick call that became a standing slot in your weekly schedule.
Jonathan Fields: [00:25:53] Now, some of these are beautiful and you know they add meaning and connection. Others are legacy commitments, things you agree to in a different season or as a different version of you, even that you’ve never gone back and reevaluated. The thing is, every commitment has a cost. Time, energy, emotional presence. If you have too many, even even good ones, your days can become so overfull that you never actually feel your life. I call this when I look at my calendar and it looks like that I call the feeling brittle, right? My calendar is brittle and actually my life becomes brittle and I can’t feel it anymore. All I feel is overwhelm. You’re always sprinting between obligations, rarely inhabiting any of them. And then beyond commitments, there are stories. You know. These are the inner scripts that generate a lot of your I must, I should, I have to experiences things like I’m only valuable if I’m useful to other people, or if I say no, they’ll be disappointed or leave or, you know, I have to be busy to matter, or I need to constantly improve myself, or I’ll fall behind or other people get to rest. I have to earn it. I had this story in my life literally until not too long ago, or I had this story that said, at the end of the day, I pretty much always get what I want, but not without an incredible amount of suffering.
Jonathan Fields: [00:27:37] These stories can run in the background for years without being named, and they quietly drive you to, to overwork, to over give, to overcommit, to over acquire, to over apologize. Minimalism of the spirit is is not about austerity. It’s about clarity and spaciousness. It’s about asking what can I gently release on the outside and inside that is actively pulling me away from a felt sense of enough one more time. What can I gently release on the outside and inside that is actively pulling me away from a felt sense of enough? Now, if you’re in a place where you can pause and reflect for a moment, I want to offer a three part inventory, a quick three part inventory. This is not a big, complicated thing. You can just kind of think your way through it or jot things down if that’s available to you. Or you can again, just circle back to it and grab the the free downloadable PDF and and fill it in when you have a chance. But for now, even just just think through it. So first things. Is there one physical item in my space that I’m only keeping? Out of guilt or inertia that no longer adds meaning or joy to my life? I’ll read it again for you.
Jonathan Fields: [00:28:58] Is there one physical item in my space that I’m only keeping out of guilt or inertia, that no longer adds meaning or joy to my life? Just notice whatever pops up. You don’t have to act on it yet. Just just name it right. Second commitments. Is there one recurring commitment? Weekly? Monthly, ongoing that consistently drains me and doesn’t really align with the person I’m becoming or the season I’m in now? I’ll repeat that again. Is there one recurring commitment weekly, monthly, or ongoing that consistently drains me and doesn’t really align with the person I’m becoming or the season I’m in now? Again, no need to make a decision about this right now. Just see what surfaces. And third stories. Is there one internal story about what I have to be or do to be enough that still feels especially heavy or outdated? I’ll read it again. Is there one internal story about what I have to be or do to be enough. That feels especially heavy or outdated. It might be something like I have to be the strong one. I can’t disappoint anyone. Or if I’m not productive, I’m failing. Just naming it is a powerful first step toward loosening its grip. You don’t have to declutter your whole life overnight. This is about gently becoming more conscious of what is filling your days, your mind, and your heart. Now let’s get very practical, right? So traditional New Year’s resolutions tend to ask what will you add this year? An inverse resolution in the spirit of the Year of enough asks what will you intentionally stop doing this year because it actively diminishes your joy, your peace, or your well-being? Again, what will you intentionally stop doing this year because it actively diminishes your joy, your peace, or your well-being.
Jonathan Fields: [00:31:09] Not five things, not ten. One, we’re talking about subtraction in service of enough. Now this could be behavioral. Something like I’ll stop checking email in bed. I’ll stop scrolling social media as the very first thing I do in the morning. I’ll stop eating lunch at my desk every single day. It could be relational. I will stop regularly spending time in one relationship that consistently leaves me feeling small or unsafe. Or, you know, I will stop joining in on gossip at work. It could be internal. Something like, I’ll stop letting a single number on a scale in a bank account, on a screen dictate my mood for the entire day or something like I’ll stop talking to myself in that one brutal way. When I notice it, I’ll pause and try a slightly, maybe kinder, sentence. You’re not promising perfection here. That’s really important to note. You’re just choosing a direction. This year, I’m moving away from this one specific thing that reliably makes me feel less like enough. And in the spirit of the UN resolution last week’s episode, you can treat your inverse resolution as an experiment.
Jonathan Fields: [00:32:28] By the way, if you haven’t listened to the UN resolution yet, go back after this episode and listen to it, along with the prior one on the myth of the Clean Slate. So, so valuable. You don’t have to do them in order, but really helpful, right? So again, in the spirit of that UN resolution, you can treat your inverse resolution as an experiment. Something like for the next month I’m going to experiment with not doing X and just see what happens. You may be surprised what happens when that one draining behavior, commitment or pattern starts to loosen. So I’d love to pull all of this into a simple, doable year of enough experiment that you can start right away. You can make it a let’s call it a seven day experiment. You can make it 30 days whatever feels approachable to you. It has three parts, right? Part one A year of enough intention. Part two is one inverse resolution, right? One thing you’re subtracting and part three is a daily enoughness check in. So let’s let’s walk through each part one a year of enough intention. So complete this sentence in your own word. This year I’m exploring what it means to feel enough in the area of blank. Fill in that blank. It might be my body, my work, my relationships, how I show up as a parent or a partner or a friend or my creativity.
Jonathan Fields: [00:33:59] My my sense of worth, independent of what I accomplish. Right. Again this year, I’m exploring what it means to feel enough in the area of and then finish that intention, that sentence. That’s step number one. You’re not you’re not promising to never feel not enough again. By the way, we live in reality. Here, you’re just choosing a domain where you’d like to bring more awareness and more kindness and more enoughness to it. If you’re writing actually put this on paper. There’s something really powerful I found about seeing it. And that brings us to to step two or part two one inverse resolution. So next, after the intention statement, choose one thing you’ll experiment with doing less of or not at all for the next 7 to 30 days. You can borrow from the earlier examples or follow what your own reflection surfaced. Write it as for the next X days. Fill in that x. I’m going to experiment with stopping or reducing, and then add in what the thing is and see what shifts. Again, this is not a moral test. It’s curiosity. So it could be something like what happens to my sense of enough when I spend fewer nights doomscrolling. Right. So the sentence would be for the next seven days, I’m going to experiment with stopping or reducing what happens to my sense of enough when I spend fewer nights and see what shifts.
Jonathan Fields: [00:35:29] This could be something like what happens when I don’t let my weight, or my revenue, or my follower count be the primary narrator of my day? Or what happens when I stop overcommitting to that one thing that drains me? Right. So that’s step two. And that brings us to step number three, a daily enoughness check in. So finally, pick one of the simple practices we talked about and turn it into a daily prompt for your experiment, you might choose the already question once a day. What’s one thing in my life right now that I once really wanted? Or the one good moment practice? You know what was one concrete moment today where life felt okay, or even good? Or the what’s not wrong check in right now. What is one small thing that’s not wrong? If you want to make it super simple, here is a ready made pair each morning. Something like if today were already enough. Not because it’s perfect, but because I chose to meet it that way. How might I move through it differently? And then each evening you could say something like, where did I experience even a flicker of enoughness today? You don’t have to write essays. A word or a sentence is plenty. So over 7 or 30 days, what you’re doing here is you’re you’re gently training your system to notice sufficiency, even as you remain honest about what’s hard and what you’d like to change.
Jonathan Fields: [00:37:02] So as we start to to wrap up this conversation and really this whole three part series, The Myth of the Clean Slate, the UN resolution, right. And now the year of enough. I want to zoom out for a moment. In the myth of the Clean Slate, we challenge the idea that you need to throw away your past self in order to begin again. We said you’re not a mistake that needs to be erased. You’re a human with a history, and that history contains data and wisdom that you need for the journey ahead. In the UN resolution, we challenge the idea that you need a perfect, rigid plan to justify your desire to grow. You know, we said you don’t have to pass a test in January. We can treat change as a series of tiny experiments, directions, small trials, gentle reviews in partnership with your real lived life. And today, in the Year of enough, we’re challenging the idea that you have to outrun yourself to deserve a good year. We’re asking what happens if you stop postponing your okayness? What happens if you you let yourself feel moments of enough now, even as you keep moving and learning and growing? Because here’s the thing you can spend an entire year trying to, quote, earn your way into belonging and feeling good and feeling alive and feeling connected and feeling meaning, feeling joy. Or you can experiment with what it feels like to start from belonging and all those other feelings and let your actions, your goals, your experiments just flow from there.
Jonathan Fields: [00:38:43] You don’t have to get this perfect. You won’t, I won’t. Nobody will. Neither will really. Anyone I know there will be days when not enough is allowed where it’s, you know, that that that that line and that feeling is screaming at you. Days when comparison wins, days when you forget every practice that we’ve talked about here and that is okay. You are a human. That’s okay. The point is not to become some Zen master of enoughness. The point is just to shift even slightly the way you relate to your own life, to move from. I’ll be happy when toward. I’m allowed to experience moments of enough while I walk towards what matters to me. So if you’re up for it, here’s your tiny next step as we close out. Write down your year of enough intention in one line. Choose one inverse resolution. Pick one daily prompt you’ll use for the next 7 to 30 days. That’s it. You don’t have to announce it on social. You don’t have to turn it into a campaign. This can be quiet and personal and just for you. You are not behind. You are not a project that needs to be fixed before you can have a good year. You’re a human in motion with a life that already contains threads of enoughness, even when it’s hard to see it or feel it.
Jonathan Fields: [00:40:17] My hope is that as you move through the year, more and more of those threads become visible to you. That you feel them in your body, that they they soften your edges, that they give you a different kind of courage, not the courage to to grind harder, but the courage to live more honestly and more kindly, just more fully here. So thanks for walking through this three part journey with me. I’m really grateful to be a part of your year, and I will see you in the next episode.
Jonathan Fields: [00:40:48] This episode of Good Life Project was produced by executive producers Lindsey Fox and me, Jonathan Fields. Editing help by Alejandro Ramirez and Troy Young. Kristoffer Carter crafted our theme music and of course, if you haven’t already done so, please go ahead and follow Good Life Project in your favorite listening app or on YouTube too. If you found this conversation interesting or valuable and inspiring, chances are you did because you’re still listening here, do me a personal favor a seven-second favor. Share it with just one person. I mean, if you want to share it with more, that’s awesome too. But just one person even then, invite them to talk with you about what you’ve both discovered to reconnect and explore ideas that really matter, because that’s how we all come alive together. Until next time. I’m Jonathan Fields signing off for Good Life Project.